The Chicken Coop
Just as easy to take care of as dogs and just as entertaining, and you can eat
their babies at least, before they hatch that is.....
their babies at least, before they hatch that is.....
Our first foray into the animal world of course starts with chickens. Most laymen farmers/homesteaders start off with chickens as these things are probably the easiest animals to take care of next to rabbits and don't really require a lot of room and give you a lot of benefits in the form of eggs every so often along with meat on occasion.
Being the po' folks that we are, we had to do things with frugality in mind, meaning we wanted to spend as little as humanly possible while still accomplishing the goal. In this case we bought chicks locally. It was a lot cheaper and more personal than ordering chicks thru the mail (you don't get to look at the product before buying, and some may not survive the trip).
Of course since we started this adventure in the trailing end of winter, we couldn't just pop up a dog house in the yard and stick some tiny chickens out there and expect them to survive, nope, they had to come in the house with us. This was OK in the beginning of course, when they were pretty small. We started off with 3 Black Japanese Bantams, which were small to start with and don't really grow big at all, their adult size is about par with 1 month old Rhode Island Red, which we'll get to in a moment.
These little chickens hung out in a box in the middle of the living room floor with a light fixture clamped to the side of the box to help keep em warm. Chicks need a temp around the 90 degree range to keep them happy. They'll let you know whether they're hot or cold. If they huddle under the lamp, they're freezin', and if they're spread out away from the center of the light beam, they're letting you know they don't wanna become little rotisserie chickens before their time, like I said, pretty easy to deal with. Other than that, a couple of feeders for water and starter feed, which was reasonably cheep, I mean cheap, at $13 for a 50lb bag, kept these little chicks alive.
For the next few months the three bantams and four reds lived in harmony in a larger box. We also added a Barred Rock chicken to the mix as well, same age as the others. She adjusted pretty fast, mainly because everyone was still young. This kind of practice would proove to be more difficult after the chickens reach maturity. After a while they started jumping to the top of the box to roost. We ended up having to put plastic pet food bags around the bottom of the box to keep the chicken shit from staining and sticking to the rug. Granted this was a rather nasty phase in the world of chicken raising as we had to constantly clean this stuff up.
At this point we immediately started building a chicken tractor to house these stinky bastards when they got big enough and the weather broke enough that they wouldn't freeze. We built a chicken tractor with the intent of being able to move the whole works periodically while still keeping the birds protected from the "real world". We didn't know if our dogs would be a problem or if every animal in the woods would suddenly materialize once some vulnerable chickens found themselves roaming around free. The tractor is around 8 ft long, 4 ft high and 3 ft wide. The coop area has these dimensions with the exception of its 3 ft length. We installed a set of nesting boxes totalling 4 individual boxes and a single roosting post in the middle of the enclosure. We also installed a light fixture in the ceiling of the coop, more for inducing the chickens' laying instinct through light exposure than for heat, but in the winter, an incandescent light can still take some of the chill from the enclosure
Unfortunately one of the bantams did die, and after having a service for him, which was nothing more than a prompt burial in the pet cemetery, we started looking for more chicks, can't do anything with 2 chickens now, especially when their eggs will be rather small. After a search, we turned up another chicken farmer who had some month old Rhode Island Reds for a reasonable price. We ended up getting 3 hens and the lady threw in a rooster for free since she had too many. Imagine what those 2 little bantams thought when this foursome showed up, crowding them out. Luckily they did get along.
Being the po' folks that we are, we had to do things with frugality in mind, meaning we wanted to spend as little as humanly possible while still accomplishing the goal. In this case we bought chicks locally. It was a lot cheaper and more personal than ordering chicks thru the mail (you don't get to look at the product before buying, and some may not survive the trip).
Of course since we started this adventure in the trailing end of winter, we couldn't just pop up a dog house in the yard and stick some tiny chickens out there and expect them to survive, nope, they had to come in the house with us. This was OK in the beginning of course, when they were pretty small. We started off with 3 Black Japanese Bantams, which were small to start with and don't really grow big at all, their adult size is about par with 1 month old Rhode Island Red, which we'll get to in a moment.
These little chickens hung out in a box in the middle of the living room floor with a light fixture clamped to the side of the box to help keep em warm. Chicks need a temp around the 90 degree range to keep them happy. They'll let you know whether they're hot or cold. If they huddle under the lamp, they're freezin', and if they're spread out away from the center of the light beam, they're letting you know they don't wanna become little rotisserie chickens before their time, like I said, pretty easy to deal with. Other than that, a couple of feeders for water and starter feed, which was reasonably cheep, I mean cheap, at $13 for a 50lb bag, kept these little chicks alive.
For the next few months the three bantams and four reds lived in harmony in a larger box. We also added a Barred Rock chicken to the mix as well, same age as the others. She adjusted pretty fast, mainly because everyone was still young. This kind of practice would proove to be more difficult after the chickens reach maturity. After a while they started jumping to the top of the box to roost. We ended up having to put plastic pet food bags around the bottom of the box to keep the chicken shit from staining and sticking to the rug. Granted this was a rather nasty phase in the world of chicken raising as we had to constantly clean this stuff up.
At this point we immediately started building a chicken tractor to house these stinky bastards when they got big enough and the weather broke enough that they wouldn't freeze. We built a chicken tractor with the intent of being able to move the whole works periodically while still keeping the birds protected from the "real world". We didn't know if our dogs would be a problem or if every animal in the woods would suddenly materialize once some vulnerable chickens found themselves roaming around free. The tractor is around 8 ft long, 4 ft high and 3 ft wide. The coop area has these dimensions with the exception of its 3 ft length. We installed a set of nesting boxes totalling 4 individual boxes and a single roosting post in the middle of the enclosure. We also installed a light fixture in the ceiling of the coop, more for inducing the chickens' laying instinct through light exposure than for heat, but in the winter, an incandescent light can still take some of the chill from the enclosure
Unfortunately one of the bantams did die, and after having a service for him, which was nothing more than a prompt burial in the pet cemetery, we started looking for more chicks, can't do anything with 2 chickens now, especially when their eggs will be rather small. After a search, we turned up another chicken farmer who had some month old Rhode Island Reds for a reasonable price. We ended up getting 3 hens and the lady threw in a rooster for free since she had too many. Imagine what those 2 little bantams thought when this foursome showed up, crowding them out. Luckily they did get along.
After our first small batch of chickens got their debut in the yard with the chicken tractor, we of course got bitten by the chicken bug and ended up picking up more baby chickens to raise to maturity. After a while we ended up fencing in a section of the yard next to the garden to keep the chickens somewhat protected as there are plenty of predators that are more than willing to make a meal out of adolescent chickens. The chicken tractor ended up in there for the time as we would let the chickens out during the day and they would go back in at night.
As the flock increased over the next year, our makeshift shelters which included old dog houses, ratty 3 walled pallet structures and even large buckets weren't cutting it. We decided that we needed to build a larger more permanent structure to serve as a chicken coop. This coop was situated on a 4x8 plywood board and would be 4ft high to allow for headroom for us when we go to clean the thing out. It will have two tiers of nesting boxes and two roosting posts and a large entry door that would be enough for even one of us to crawl into.
With plywood sides, and a tar paper/steel roof, this thing should last a while. Its suspended on masonry blocks to keep the base from rotting due to moisture, and to serve as a barrier from rodent infiltration.
Here's some products that will help you further your poultry raising endeavors.
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